Jesus Cropped from the Picture

The Satisfying End of My Journey

Recovering from Fragmentation One of the most significant cultural influences in recent history is an aspect of the Marketing Concept called “target marketing,” which gained acceptance in the 1970s and 1980s. In various ways, the Traditional, Pragmatic, and Emerging methods all succumbed to target marketing, which follows three major steps: The first is market segmentation , the act of dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who might require separate products and/or marketing mixes. The company identifies different ways to segment the market, develops profiles of the market segments, and evaluates each segment’s attractiveness. The second step is market targeting, the act of evaluating and selecting one or more of the market segments to enter. The third step is product positioning, the act of formulating a competitive positioning for the product and a detailed marketing mix. 117 Churches followed the first step ( market segmentation ) when they segmented their “buyers” into various groups. Some churches segmented by age, creating youth programs or establishing adult Christian education groups (Sunday School) based on seasons of life. Some churches segmented over music preferences by creating two services (one contemporary, the other traditional). Other churches segmented by offering special programs or activities that meet specific needs (financial training, substance abuse), or by gender interests (women’s or men’s ministries). The Emerging church focuses on a specific cultural segment of the population (Postmodernity).

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